The Brain: A Very Short Introduction

Think for a few moments about a very special machine, your brain – an organ of just 1.2 kg, containing one hundred billion nerve cells, none of which alone has any idea who or what you are. In fact the very idea that a cell can have an idea seems silly. A single cell after all is far too simple an entity. However, conscious awareness of one’s self comes from just that: nerve cells communicating with one another by a hundred trillion interconnections. When you think about it this is a deeply puzzling fact of life.

Think for a few moments about a very special machine, your brain – an organ of just 1.2 kg, containing one hundred billion nerve cells, none of which alone has any idea who or what you are. In fact the very idea that a cell can have an idea seems silly. A single cell after all is far too simple an entity. However, conscious awareness of one’s self comes from just that: nerve cells communicating with one another by a hundred trillion interconnections. When you think about it this is a deeply puzzling fact of life.